Crush
by Ella Dean Pendragon
Summary: My new Merlin/Arthur story. The boys, along with Morgana and Gwen are in their last year at college and the yearly talent contest is coming up, is this the perfect time for Merlin to reveal his ‘crush’ on a certain blonde? SLASH! T some strong language


**Crush**

**A/N - hey guys, well this is my new Merlin/Arthur story. Its set in the present. The boys, along with Morgana and Gwen are in their last year at college and the yearly talent contest is coming up, is this the perfect time for Merlin to reveal his 'crush' on a certain blonde? The song that is used is Crush by David Archuleta. There is a mention of Winner at a Losing Game, that song is by Rascal Flatts. **

**Unfortunately Merlin and Arthur don't belong to me, if they did they would have been together along time ago! I don't own any of the other characters in the story either, they all belong to the BBC. Oh, and there might be a few strong uses of language, you have been warned. Now, on with they story, hope you enjoy!**

As Merlin and Arthur walked down the hall away from their second lesson of the day, English Language both kept quite until they were safely out of ear shot.

"What does he think we are?" Arthur said rather loudly, causing three first years who have only been at the college a week to jump as the tried to find their next class.

"Seriously! How can he possibly think that we can read all of this…" he held up a book that was about nine hundred pages long, "And write a bloody report on it?! I have things to do! I have to find a new goalkeeper for a start and…" he would have carried on but Merlin cut across him as the blonde was starting to attract the unwanted attention of the teachers walking the halls, looking for lost first years and itching to hand out a detention or two.

"How come your after a keeper? I thought James from last year was a good one." Merlin asked, unable to keep his eyes off Arthur, noticing everything that he did, from the way he scratched his neck to how he constantly checked that his phone, keys, ipod and wallet were still in his jeans pocket.

"Yeah he was but he transferred to another college in the summer and our reserve keeper is not up to scratch so I've got to find a new guy, one of the down sides to being captain." Arthur said as he and Merlin walked around the corner, towards the common room.

"You know, I whish you had an interest in sport then you could join the team and I wouldn't have to trial the idiots that think they can play." Arthur said as they walked into the common room and headed to the corner table and chairs and waited for the girls to arrive.

"I'm gay Arthur so according to the stereotypes I'm not meant to have and interest in sport." Merlin said has he watched Arthur take off his jacket before sitting down too. Arthur lowered his voice and leaned across the table.

"I'm gay too but I love sports."

"You're a exception to the rules."

"Hmm, is that right?" Merlin just nodded in response as they fell into a comfortable silence as Arthur made a start on the book and Merlin pretended to look over Arthur's shoulder at the door but in truth he let his vision slid over to Arthur more often than he should. When Merlin looked at Arthur he saw everything he would ever want, ever need but he knew he could never have. Yes, Arthur was gay and to himself and his close friends he had no problem admitting it but he knew that to get the respect from his team and everyone else, including his father he had to appear to be like the rest off them. Even if he didn't Merlin knew that Arthur would never like him as more that a friend. He knew he loved Arthur, everything about him and he knew that would never change so Merlin thought of himself as a winner at a losing game, he loved someone but knew that he would never win that game because they could never love him back in that way.

Merlin didn't know how much time had passed but next thing he knew Morgana and Gwen were walking towards them.

"Hey girls." he said as they drew near to them, Arthur turned in his chair to see who Merlin was talking to.

"Hey Morgana, Gwen, how was class he asked as they sat down.

"Rubbish." Gwen said from her seat next to Merlin. Merlin turned to look at her.

"Whys that?"

"Because I got stuck with that Joe guy, he's a nice guy to talk to but completely useless at science, he insisted he mixed the chemicals and before I could stop him he had the desk on fire!" Gwen crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Morgana.

"Hold on, I thought you and Morgana paired up in science?" Arthur asked her, putting the book in his bag, knowing he wouldn't read it, find a summary online and get a grade around a C if he was lucky.

"Not any more apparently! We were already to work together then the new guy walks in, said he was sorry for being late and took a seat next to Morgana. Then she offers to work with him!"

"I'm sorry, but you saw him! Gwen if you had got there first then I wouldn't have said anything!" Morgana said, trying to defend herself but gave up after the looks she saw she was getting, anger from Gwen and a faces that said 'right, of course, we belief you' from the boys.

"So what is it about this new guy?" Merlin asked, trying to move the conversation on so Gwen wouldn't look like steam was going to come out of her ears.

"He is so hot!" Morgana said, her eyes lighting up. "I think you two would like him as well"

"I don't think so, not unless he had blonde hair and blue…." Merlin didn't finish his sentence as he caught the look that had just appeared on Arthur's face, Merlin couldn't work out what it was but it wasn't anger more like surprise, he would have to be more careful about what he said around the blonde for a while.

"Well you'll know soon, here he is." Morgana said, all of them turned to see a brown haired and brown eyed guy walking towards them.

'No, really not my type.' Merlin thought to himself and he turned to Arthur to see what he thought, they had a system where if they were trying to tell each other what they thought about a guy without the guy knowing, if one of them liked him they would nod slightly, once, if they weren't sure then they would cross there arms and if they didn't like him then they would raise and eyebrow. When Merlin looked at Arthur he was relived to see a blonde eyebrow raised, he did the same. By now the new guy had taken a seat next to Morgana and was talking to her. Merlin and Arthur rejoined the conversation.

"Yeah this is him." Morgana answered a question he hadn't heard. Morgana turned to look at Arthur.

"Arthur, Lancelot is really into football on was wondering when the tryouts for this years team was."

"There today, next lesson, its free period for most second years, what position do you play?"

"Goalkeeper is my strongest but I can also play centre back too." The guy, Lancelot said.

"Right, stick with goalkeeper, that's what I'm looking for."

"Awesome, so after break?"

"Yeah, on the pitch."

"See ya then!" then he left. Morgana turned to the two boys.

"So?" was all she asked.

"No." they both said together. Morgana gave them a look that clearly said she thought they were both blind.

"Right, I'm going to the study centre, are you coming Gwen?" Gwen nodded.

"See you guys later."

"Bye." they both said.

Soon after the girls left so did the guys, heading for the football pitch. They talked about general things but a few times Merlin caught Arthur looking at him but he didn't let it go to his head, he told himself he was reading to much into it.

When they arrived at the pitch most of the team was already there, they wanted to see who was joining the ranks this year. As well as them there was a group of about five others, obviously the guys trying out for keeper. As they drew level with the rest of the team Merlin saw two of the defenders, Liam and Brian, he made a mental note to stay clear of them as they were known to be homophobic. But as they walked he heard one of them, the bigger one say,

"Oh great the captain has brought his gay boy friend along!" and he wasn't quite about it. Before Merlin could stop him Arthur had walked right over to him and had him by the scruff of the neck against the wall of the changing rooms.

"Keep your mindless comments to yourself or I'll be looking for more than a Keeper. I don't have you on the team because I like you, you complete Bastard!"

Arthur let the guy go and walked of in the opposite direction.

Merlin sat on in one of the spectator stands while Arthur ran the tryouts, the first four keepers were useless, Merlin thought he could do a better job than that. Lance was the last to try and he was good, out of the 10 shots fired at him he saved all but two. In the end there was no arguing about it, Lancelot was the best.

Merlin watched as Arthur gave a team talk and set up a training session for the next night. When the players left Arthur came to sit with Merlin, both sat and stared out at the murky grey sky, a sky that was treating rain. Arthur was first to break the silence.

"I'm sorry about what Liam said."

"It's not your fault, if he knew he was offending you too, well I don't think he would be saying it." Merlin said as he looked over to Arthur, who was looking like it was his fault that some people were still narrow minded.

"Yeah, maybe" Arthur said as he stood up, pulling Merlin with him, for a second they were about an inch apart, so close that Merlin could feel the other boys breath on his lips and could smell his sent more clearly, but it was just a second because Arthur jumped now the two steps before turning to say that they would be late for psychology if they didn't go now.

An hour later they left psychology for the cafeteria, Arthur again complaining about the increasing amount of homework that they had.

"This weekend you are gonna have to stay at mine so that we can get all of this done." Arthur said as they went to get there food.

"Yeah?" Merlin asked

"Yeah, that was the point of me taking all of the same classes as you."

"Oh right, I thought that was because we are friends?" Merlin asked in a teasing tone.

"That too." Arthur said with a smile before biting into his apple. Not long after that the girls joined them and when they saw Lancelot looking around the room like a lost sheep they asked him to join them, much to Morgana's joy. They were all talking so none of them saw Liam, Brian and their other friend Tony walk in until they heard their voices, voices shouting abuse and taunting words. With each word to reach their ears Arthur was getting angrier and angrier, his hands were now in fists so tight his knuckles were turning white.

"Arthur, don't do it!" Gwen whispered to him.

"Don't blow it!!!!" Morgana said whilst shoot dark looks at the offending boys.

"Have I missed something?" Lance asked but Merlin barely heard them as he was looking at Arthur.

"Arthur let it go, really don't blow your cover over this, they just don't like what they don't understand." Merlin placed a hand over one of Arthur's balled up fists, for a moment he felt the hand loosen slightly until he heard one of the idiots, he wasn't sure which one shout,

"Your gonna have to wash your hand after that, Pendragon!" that was it, Arthur snapped, he crossed the room like faster than anyone could stop him. At this point in time there was no teachers around as it was getting to the end of lunch time, so there was nothing stopping Arthur from ripping him to shreds. Yet Arthur stopped about two feet away from the guy.

"What did I say to you earlier? You're off the team!" Merlin was surprised that Arthur had managed to keep his temper in check, well until,

"Why are you always standing up for him? Your not one of them are you?" Liam asked in a way that was clearly meant to be a joke but Arthur just stared at him. At this point Arthur had had enough, he was sick of it, sick of it all, now he just didn't care.

"Yeah, I am 'one of them' as you put it! If you've got a problem with that I suggest you keep it to yourself." then he walked off, not even going back to pick up his bag. Merlin just stared after him, not even noting when the three guy left, he didn't notice anything until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around to face Morgana.

"I can't believe he just did that." was all he could say.

"You know why he did it right?" she asked, Merlin just looked at her, had she not been in the same room as him?

"Yean because those prats were offending him, well us."

"That's not the only reason." Gwen said, walking forward after being Arthur's bag up. Merlin just looked at them both.

"He did it because he feels the same, the stuck up for you because he loves you and didn't want them to hurt you."

"What? There is no way he feel the same, I mean…." then something occurred to him,

"Hold on how do you know how I feel about him?" how he felt about Arthur was the only thing he had never told them, told anyone.

"We are girls Merlin, we know these things!" was all Gwen said.

"Now the main thing is how are you gonna tell him?" Merlin felt his mouth go dry

"What?! I'm not gonna tell him! There is no way he likes me too! I mean he's Arthur Pendragon for crying out loud!"

"Either you tell him or we will." Lance said.

"Hey you are new! But you are right, I have to tell him no one else, but I'm no good with words, they just come out wrong."

"Good thing all you have to do is sing them then!" Morgana said, happily.

"What?" Merlin asked but he clicked before she could answer, the talent show was tonight. The talent show was something he, Morgana and Gwen did every year but they always did it separately because they all sang and their voices just didn't go together.

"I know just the song." Merlin said.

Arthur wasn't in their next class but the new piece of gossip about him was, Liam and friends had ran right to their girls friends, the gossip queens! Merlin spent an entire hour avoiding the stares of his classmates and trying not to look at the black sports bag in the seat next to him, the bag he took from Gwen in the hope of returning it to its owner but that was not to be. At the end of class Merlin waited for everyone to leave before he got up. As the walked out the room he checked his phone and felt his pulse race as he saw there was a text message from Arthur, it read

_Gone home 2 tell Dad before sum1 else does._

_B at the show 2nite to cheer u 3 on_

_C u l8er __J_

Merlin felt better knowing where Arthur was but hated that he had been pushed into coming out to his Father before he was ready. As it was the end of the day Arthur would usually have given Merlin a lift home but seeing as he wasn't there Merlin was glad that this was one day he didn't need to go home. Instead he headed to the hall were all the other performers were. He spotted Morgana and Gwen so he headed over to them.

"Where's Arthur?" was the first thing that Morgana asked when she saw that the blonde that she once had a crush (but would never admit it) on wasn't around.

"He wasn't in last lesson, he sent me this." he answered, showing them the text.

"Well at least we know he'll be hear and we get to know how it went." Gwen said.

"If his Dad doesn't kill him." Merlin muttered. He knew Arthur could handle himself if things got physical but he didn't like to think that way. So he distracted himself by going over the lines, tune and the way it needed to be sang to get the message across. Before he knew it people were arriving, but still no Arthur. About ten minuets before the show was to start he saw him walk in, looking unhurt, from a distance at least. Merlin breathed a sigh of relief. As luck would have it he was the last on stage so he closing the show.

'Great, add to the pressure, I'm only about to have my dreams shattered or come true' he thought to himself. As he walked on to the stage he passed Morgana who had just finished, ad they passed he heard her say,

"He's in the fourth row, last seat near the aisle."

"Thanks."

Merlin walked out onto the centre of the stage and took the mike from the stand,

"I changed this song at the last minuet because it has a message I need to get across to the single most important person in my life." Merlin saw Arthur sit up higher at this, 'He knows, inside he knows. "the song is thinking about if this thing is a crush that is never gonna end and is gonna grow into something much more and I hope it does and in case he hasn't worked it out yet, Arthur this is about you and me, all the two hour phone conversations, hanging out whenever we could, I was falling deeper in love with you." right then the music started and the lights went down so Merlin couldn't see anything past the shoes of the people in the front row but he could still see Arthur in his mind, in clear detail.

_I hung up the phone tonight,Something happened for the first time,Deep inside it was a rush, what a rush,Cause the possibility thatYou would ever feel the same away about me,It's just too much, just too much_

_Why do I keep running from the truth,All I ever think about is you_

_You got me hypnotized, so mesmerized,And I just got to know_

_Do you ever think, when you're all alone,All that we can be, where this thing can go,Am I crazy or falling in love,Is it real or just another crushDo you catch a breath, when I look at you,Are you holding back, like the way I do,Cause I'm tryin', tryin' to walk awayBut I know this crush aint' goin' away, goin' away_

_Has it ever cross your mind when we're hangin',Spending time,Are we just friends, is there more, is there more,See it's a chance we've gotta take,Cause I believe that we can make this intoSomething that will last,Last forever, forever_

_Do you ever think, when you're all alone,all that we can be, where this thing can go,Am I crazy or falling in love,Is it real or just another crushDo you catch a breath, when I look at you,Are you holding back, like the way I do,Cause I'm tryin', tryin' to walk awayBut I know this crush aint' goin' away, goin' away_

_Why do I keep running from the truth,All I ever think about is youYou got me hypnotized, so mesmerized,And I just got to know_

_Do you ever think, when you're all alone,all that we can be, where this thing can go,Am I crazy or falling in love,Is it real or just another crushDo you catch a breath, when I look at you,Are you holding back, like the way I do,Cause I'm tryin', tryin' to walk awayBut I know this crush aint' goin' away, goin' away_

when the song was finished and the lights came back on everyone was on their feet, cheering. Merlin looked over to Arthur's seat but he wasn't there. Merlin felt like a ton of bricks had hit him, the girls were wrong and he had been right, there was no way Arthur liked him too. He turned to head off the stage but found that his path was blocked by a certain blonde.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't think for a second that there was any chance that you, you know…"

"Oh, what am I gonna do with you?" Merlin didn't have time to answer as he felt Arthur's lips on him own. The kiss was way better than Merlin ever imagined. Slow and soft but got across all the feelings of love, trust and friendship that they felt for each other. The room erupted in another round of applause and cheers, led by Morgana, Gwen and Lance but Merlin and Arthur either didn't hear or didn't care, they were too lost in each other.

**Well? What did you think? This was meant to be a short story but I just kept writing! Leave a review to let me know what you think!**


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